U.S. ship fires warning shots at Iranian boats in the Gulf

U.S. Navy ship fires warning shots at Iranian boats near the Strait of Hormuz, the latest in a series of similar encounters.

A U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots at Iranian boats on Sunday near the Strait of Hormuz, American Defense officials said Monday, according to CNN.

The incident occurred as five Iranian vessels approached the USS Mahan and two other American ships that were entering the strait, according to accounts from four sources.

The Mahan, a destroyer, fired warning shots and used radio calls, flares, bells and whistles to signal to the ships to stay away, according to CNN. There was no response to the radio calls. A U.S. helicopter overhead dropped smoke grenades.

Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said the boats came “within 900 yards or so” of the Mahan.

“It’s somewhat out of character, recently anyway, from what we’ve seen out of Iran,” he added.

The incident is the latest in a series of encounters in the Gulf between American and Iranian ships.

In September, the U.S. Navy said that Iran had threatened two American maritime patrol aircraft flying over the Strait of Hormuz.

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Joel Cholo Brooks is a Liberian journalist who previously worked for several international news outlets including the BBC African Service. He is the CEO of the Global News Network which publishes two local weeklies, The Star and The GNN-Liberia Newspapers. He is a member of the Press Union Of Liberia (PUL) since 1986, and several other international organizations of journalists.